Friday, June 8, 2012

6/5/2012

    Starting in Rapid City, South Dakota we left around 7:30 a.m. Mountain time. Our forecast showed a slight chance for severe weather in mid parts of Montana, with a 5 percent chance of tornadoes according to the SPC. Construction made it hard for us to make good timing for initiation.

    Traveling into Wyoming we were welcomed with a herd of cattle and their ranchers. Wyoming is very vacant, mostly open territory with a very low population. Indian reserves were common. Most Indians now open up casinos and other attractions to help with their towns.

     Coming close to Montana, a sever thunderstorm watch was issued for the southern portion. Storms soon began to fire into intense super cells, and we were in the perfect location just west of Billings. The first storm we were chasing was decent and had small amounts of shear, allowing it to have good structure. However, a new storm formed to the north of us and began to grow with great shear. This storm hit White Sulfur Springs. This storm dropped one weak tornado, however we didn't witness it; we saw small amounts of damage coming into the outskirts of the town.

      More storms began to fire around us and before we knew it, we were stuck between 3 super cells. The first storm we were tracking had since grown into a fantastic cell. The shear readings were close to 80 and you could actually see the storm on radar rotating. Chasing this storm was down right impossible! Our road connections were limited and we were located in mountainous terrain.

      We decided it was far too dangerous to chase this monster. We needed to focus more on how we were going to get out of the situation we put ourselves in. Wind, rain, and hail made it almost impossible to see especially in the mountains.

      To end the day we came to conclusion that we really had no chance of getting to chase the original cell. The road network was a mess. We instead headed to Great Falls, Montana where we ate dinner and spent the night.

       As we got to the hotel more storms were training over Great Falls. A few had shear indicators and one with a TVS indicator. Lightning was also a dangerous contributor to the storms. God sure knows how to put on a show!






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